


The Best of You

by Lafeae



Series: Whump/Hurt/Comfort challenge [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Amnesia, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Brotherly Affection, Challenge Response, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 20:55:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17454158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lafeae/pseuds/Lafeae
Summary: An attack on Mokuba leaves him with memory loss, and Kaiba struggles to come to terms with it.—Kaiba Bros.





	The Best of You

**Author's Note:**

> This was the first thing someone suggested and it hit me really hard in the chest.

Mokuba had been unconscious for three days, which was three days longer than Kaiba considered acceptable.

Not much could be done, the doctors had said. They would just have to wait and see how it played out.

Overall, Mokuba was lucky. Jumping out of a moving car could have been much worse and, realistically, Kaiba knew this. Nothing could have been left of him besides a stain on the pavement. But looking at his little brother, buried in blankets and covered in abrasions, made the doctor’s platitudes of ‘this could have been worse’ sicken him more. Because it could have been better, too.

Mokuba had done everything right. Once he was taken he had alerted Kaiba by calling and hanging up repeatedly, before somehow managing to wrangle himself free. That detail was hazy at best. Mokuba hadn’t overpowered his assailant, though he was smart enough to leave his cell phone in the car before he got out, allowing for the man to be tracked down.

Kaiba wondered if he wanted to know the details. Asking Mokuba wasn’t pertinent. He just wanted his little brother to be alright.

So he had spent the last three days by Mokuba’s side. The first night in the hospital, the last two when he was transferred to the mansion and looked over by a private physician. Though the assailant had been apprehended, paranoia still racked the elder Kaiba. If someone was willing to snatch Mokuba outside of school, then there was no line they wouldn’t cross.

A knock came to Mokuba’s door around midnight. Kaiba snapped awake, unaware that he’d been sleeping. Probably the most sleep he’d had the last few days, he thought. He didn’t want to miss the moment Mokuba awoke.

“Enter.”

The weary bodyguard, Isono, stepped in. “I’m retiring for the evening, Seto-sama. Is there anything you need?”

“A miracle.”

Isono smile ruefully. “It will come. The young master is strong.”

Kaiba wanted to believe Isono, but his conviction waned with each passing hour. “Is Yūto still outside?”

Isono nodded. “Leaving a dent in the carpet.”

Mokuba’s chauffeur had been kowtowing for two days, to the point that a bruise had formed on his forehead. Likely waiting for the axe to fall, but Kaiba wasn’t concerned with him. He had been knocked unconscious during the attack, an innocent bystander.

Kaiba was somewhere in the middle on what to do with him, aware that Yūto had the experience to take care of both himself and Mokuba, otherwise he wouldn’t have the job. But Kaiba thought it best to let Mokuba make the decision. He didn’t want to act blindly without details.

“Tell him to go home. I’m tired of seeing him,” Kaiba said.

Isono bowed. “Yessir. Goodnight.”

Kaiba stood and stretched out his back, his body numb from sitting for so long. He refused to complain, not as he looked Mokuba over. Kaiba frowned. Mokuba looked so small in the bed, like it would swallow him whole.

Everyone kept telling him that Mokuba was strong, that he could fight this. But it was hard to believe when he looked at the damage. Bandages wound around his forehead and attempted to cover the nasty gash across his brow. His casted wrist with candle thin fingers poking out, propped up on a Kuriboh plushie that Yuugi and the nerd herd brought a some token of condolence. Rough patches of road rash covered the exposed skin on his forearms and elbows.

Kaiba leaned far over the bed, bracing himself against it as he ran his knuckles down Mokuba’s cheek. He brushed hairs from his face and tucked them behind his ear to try and tame the black, knotted mess. “You need a haircut,” he murmured. “I’m going to take you soon, alright? You can’t tell me no this time.”

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Kaiba readjusted the blanket, pulling it a little further up. Mokuba’s arm slowly slipped down the plushie. Gingerly, Kaiba replaced it, feeling Mokuba’s fingers twitch in his palm.

“Mmm....”

Nervous excitement welled in Kaiba’s chest. He hitched his breath and calmed himself, aware that this could have just been a hiccup.

“Moki?”

Little eyes opened one at a time, warily casing the room. It took him a few moments before he roved over to Kaiba, blinking twice. “I...I’m in trouble, aren’t I?” He rasped.

“No.” Kaiba shook his head. “No, of course not.”

“Why do you look so upset?”

The question took him aback. Mokuba looked over him curiously, foreignly, in the same cautious way he approached strangers in business meetings. “I’m not, Moki. I was just worried.”

“Oh.” Mokuba turned away from him, disinterested, glancing around his room in childish wonder. As he shifted about, he moved the Kuriboh into his lap, studying it front and back before setting it in his knees. “Why were you worried?”

“Because someone hurt you. Do you remember anything?”

Mokuba shook his head, though tears of regret formed in his eyes immediately. Instantly, Kaiba was at his side, embracing Mokuba gently before nudging him back down onto the bed, cradling his head as he did.

“Take it easy.”

“My head hurts...”

“I know. It’s going to be alright.”

Bright, grey eyes opened tentatively and scanned every inch of Kaiba’s face. “You’re sure?”

“As sure as I can be.”

“So....you’re not a doctor?”

Kaiba cocked his head to the side, and he wilfully ignored the question at first. Mokuba was just being silly, poking at him for always seeming to know everything like a little brother was supposed to do. But there was innocence in the question that Kaiba noticed immediately. A genuine curiosity that was separate from childish mocking.

A nervous breath escaped Kaiba as he asked, “Do you know where you are, Mokuba?”

“No.”

Kaiba’s heart sank through his chest. Mokuba had answered without sparing the room a second look.

“Where do you think you are?”

“I dunno. A weird kid’s hospital?” Mokuba asked. “But...it looks more like a bedroom.”

“It’s your bedroom.”

Mokuba curled his nose. “It is?”

“Yes.”

Kaiba’s hands went numb, trembling to hold onto one another while he processed what Mokuba said. No wonder he had looked at everything like he didn’t know it. He didn’t. Which begged the question, “Do you know what your name is?”

“You...called me Mokuba.”

It was just getting worse. It felt as though someone had put Kaiba in a stranglehold and was gradually tightening around his neck. No. Mokuba couldn’t have forgotten. This was some elaborate ruse, some trick. He always liked to be a little devil.

“Yes. You’re Kaiba Mokuba.”

“Kaiba Mokuba,” he repeated, committing it to memory. “What’s...what’s your name then?”

“Kaiba Seto.”

“Seto...” he said, with a vague recollection on his tongue. A strained smile appeared on his face. “Kaiba? So...we’re related?”

That did it. Kaiba’s heart full-stopped in his chest, and his hand covered his mouth to hide the gasp trying to escape. He wouldn’t let Mokuba see him upset, even as hot tears brimmed at the corners of his eyes. He would be strong for his little brother. He was always strong for Mokuba. He had to be.

“Yes,” Kaiba replied, lowering his head to regain his composure. “We’re brothers.”

“Oh.”

The indifference was almost insulting. Internally, Kaiba begged for Mokuba to snap out of it, to stop playing games. He had to know how much it hurt to act like their bond didn’t exist. Mokuba was all he had—all he needed. The sole reason to get up in the morning and go to work everyday. If he had really forgotten everything...if the attack had made him forget everything....

“Are you okay?” Mokuba asked.

Kaiba’s head snapped up. He went to answer, but the words croaked in his throat. Instead, he smothered Mokuba in a hug, pressing the small boy into his breast while he fought back the body-racking sobs. He combed his fingers through Mokuba’s thick hair, careful not to disturb the gauze. The boy responded by curling closer, and Kaiba briefly wondered if he was doing it out of habit and not knowing why.

The cord of Kaiba’s locket began to dig into the back of his neck. Looking down, he caught Mokuba’s fingers pinching it and sliding down until the card-sharped locket rested in his palm.

“You know what this is?” Kaiba asked.

Mokuba’s brows furrowed. “No...?”

“Do you want to see?”

“Sure.”

Kaiba laid Mokuba back down, placing his arm back on the Kuriboh before scooting close enough that Mokuba could see when he clicked the locket open. For a few moments, there was blankness in the boy’s eyes. Not a twitch in expression or a hint of reaction. Mokuba’s eyes half-lidded.

“Who is it?”

“You.” Mokuba’s lips thinned. “It’s from when we were little. You have one as well, with my picture in it.” Kaiba grabbed the locket off of Mokuba’s nightstand and dangled it in front of him. Mokuba stole it up, running his fingers along the edges before finding out how to open it. He gazed over the picture with the same blank look in his face.

“This was a long time ago, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“How old were you?”

“Ten or so.”

“How old are you now?” Mokuba asked.

“Eighteen,” Kaiba replied. He watched something glimmer in Mokuba’s eyes as they thinned, almost like he knew something. Kaiba took it as an opportunity to press and asked, “Do you want me to...tell you about it?”

“Not really. I’m kinda tired,” he said. He clicked the locket shut and handed it back.

“It’s yours. Keep it,” Kaiba said. His entire body had gone heavy and numb. He couldn’t wrap his mind around this whole affair. He kept waiting for Mokuba to smile and laugh at his older brother, revealing that this was all some elaborate joke.

“Maybe...we can talk later?” Mokuba asked. “You look like you’re tired, too.”

Weakly, Kaiba nodded. “Sure. We can talk in the morning. Maybe you’ll....feel a little better.”

Before Kaiba left, he embraced Mokuba again, kissing the top of his head and ruffling his hair. He spent every second trying to admire his little brother, milking the moments of tucking him in and making him comfortable, all the while trying to fight the voice in the back of his head telling him that this was an imposter, and that his affection was pointless. He should have just left the moment Mokuba dismissed him. 

But he wouldn’t.

He’d spent so long being a bad brother, saying and doing awful things in his youth. Selfishly, Kaiba realised he had the opportunity to start over with Mokuba. To re-bond with him and find better footing in their relationship. Not that it was a silver lining. But for now, it was all he had. He would just have to deal with it. And that broke his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, tell me what you think. 
> 
> You can hit me up on tumblr @lafeae. Got a whole board of challenges of you’re knterested in seeing something.


End file.
